Scenes from Republic City
by LilyHalcombe
Summary: A series of short stories based on prompts I receive on Tumblr.


Scene 1: Pai Sho

Before the war against Kuvira's Earth Empire, the Four Seasons hotel had been the most expensive and luxurious hotel in Republic City. Now it was now partially overgrown with spirit vines and the upper floors had been severely damaged by the explosion that opened the new spirit world portal. With the vines proving impossible to remove, it's owners had decided to abandon the building to the spirits who now called the centre of the city home. However, as it was one of the few buildings intact enough to be occupied several of the lower floors had instead been claimed by President Raiko and his cabinet until the new city hall was built.

In a richly appointed waiting room on the second floor, Avatar Korra paced around the edge of the room, occasionally stopping to sit down into one of the red leather chairs for a few minutes before getting up and starting to pace again.

Asami looked up from the documents she was reviewing. "Sit down, Korra," she said, exasperated at her girlfriend's restlessness. "You are making me nervous."

"Oh... sorry."

The Avatar flung herself into the chair next to Asami and slumped down. She was quiet for a few minutes before asking, "Are we going to be waiting much longer for Raiko?"

"Maybe..." Asami replied. "It depends how long that evil little elephant rat Varrick takes with his presentation."

"I thought we were friends now?"

"We were... but then he undercut us on that transport contract with the Fire Nation. That cost Future Industries a lot of yuan we could have used to expand our construction teams here. Now he's trying to undercut us on the construction contract for the new City Hall as well."

"Oh," Korra said. She took Asami's hand and squeezed it affectionately. "But you'll beat him this time."

Asami frowned at the documents spread across the table and rubbed her forehead. "Maybe..."

"Is there anything I could do to help? I know I said that wanted to see how you run your business but I kind of feel a bit useless here. It reminds me a bit of when Tenzin was first trying to teach me airbending and... um that didn't end well."

"Well, there is one thing," Asami said, shuffling the proposal documents back into the slim leather folder and reaching for her bag. "How are you at Pai Sho?"

"Terrible," Korra replied. "If there was a competition for Pai Sho I'd probably get lost along the way."

"Don't worry," Asami said with a chuckle as she took the folding game board from her bag and put it on the table. "As long as you know the basics I can teach you the rest. You know, I have read that many avatars of the past were Pai Sho masters, so perhaps you'll find it useful."

"Most of my enemies don't really seem that interested in playing games with me."

"It's not just a game," Asami said as she placed the pieces into the standard starting layout. "Pai Sho is a contest of slow and methodical strategy and it helps get your mind ready for battle, or in this case business. I often take time out during a busy day to play a game or two at the park if I'm trying to work through a problem. It helps a lot."

"Well it looks like we have plenty of time," Korra said, using one hand to drag her heavy chair around to face Asami across the board. "Lets get started."

Asami grimaced at the thought of the scuff marks Korra was leaving on the polished floor boards of the waiting room, but nodded and leant forward to start the game with a standard opening move.

Korra considered the board and then made her own move.

"That tile can't move that way," Asami said at once.

"But, you..."

"Sweetie, that was a flower tile."

Korra placed the tile back at it's starting position and picked up a second tile. "What about this one?"

Asami nodded, so Korra made move and then Asami countered. Both women continued with basic moves for several minutes before Asami sat back and examined the board for what seemed like minutes contemplating her next move before finally settling on moving another of her flower tiles forward and forming a basic harmony.

She looked up to see Korra scratching her forehead with one of her unused tiles. "Korra!"

"Sorry," Korra said and brushed off the tile, placing it back on the board.

"Honestly, you are as bad as Meelo sometimes."

Korra snorted with laughter. "No one is that bad."

Asami concentrated on the board again. Korra had no strategy to her play and tended to move random tiles to very unorthodox positions but was somehow able to form a fairly competent defensive strategy on her side of the board. Asami was also having a hard time concentrating as every time her moves took more than a minute, Korra tended to get restless and would tap her feet on the floor or stretch in interesting ways that quickly became extremely distracting. Asami was certain Korra wasn't doing it on purpose, but it was making the contest a lot tighter than she had expected.

Seeing an opening, she made a risky move to bait Korra into breaking her defensive line of tiles. Instead, Korra quickly responded with by countering Asami's move perfectly and distributing two of her harmonies. Asami managed to recover from that with a series of more conventional moves but by now she was starting to wonder if she was going to win this.

Korra made another move and Asami's brow furrowed in confusion. "Why did you do that?" she asked.

"I liked the shape of the tile," Korra replied. "Why? Was it a bad move?"

"You could say that," Asami replied as she swept half of Korra's side of the board clean with her next move. "I win."

"Well I did warn you I was pretty terrible," Korra said shrugging.

"But you weren't" Asami assured her. "Up until that last move you were doing really well."

"If you say so, I have no idea what I was doing."

"How about we try again?" Asami said, resetting the tiles to their start positions.

The next two games were quick and Asami won easily, with Korra barely even able to mount a basic defence to Asami's style of play.

"Can we stop now?" Korra asked after Asami had cleared the board for the third time. "I told you I was hopeless at this."

"One more game?" Asami asked. "You are really helping and if you win this game then I will buy you dinner tonight."

"And if I lose?"

Asami gave her a devilish smile. "Then you come shopping with me after we are done here and help me pick out a stylish new evening dress and then I will take you out to the most expensive restaurant in the city and tip off the press that we are going to be dining there."

Korra grimaced. "You wouldn't do that. You hate the press as much as I do."

"True, but a few shots of the Avatar and her girlfriend enjoying a romantic dinner on the front page of the morning papers might help cover up any potential bad news if we lose this construction contract."

"You really don't play fair."

Asami tossed back her hair and laughed. "You are only now figuring that out? You will just have to win this game then won't you."

"Ok, let's do this then," Korra said, suddenly determined.

They blazed through the opening moves for the game with neither gaining a significant advantage. Unlike the last two games, Korra was playing with a lot more skill this time around and Asami soon found herself taking longer and longer for each turn as she began to form strategies in her head. As the minutes ticked by, Korra began to stretch in her seat again, raising both hands above her head and yawning loudly.

Asami glanced up and began to blush as she realised what Korra was doing. "Now who's not playing fair," she complained.

"I have no idea what you are talking about," Korra said with a not entirely innocent smile.

Asami tried to focus her attention on the game board and ignore Korra and soon made her move. Then, before Korra could make her own move the door into the makeshift council chambers opened and Varrick and Zhu Li finally emerged from their meeting with President Raiko.

"Asami," Varrick exclaimed with a cheerful grin when he saw the two women. "Good to see you again."

"Hello, Varrick," Asami said with an icy stare.

"Come on, you're not still sore about that Fire Nation deal are you?"

"You undercut us by ten percent at the last minute, conveniently the day after Korra and I had you two over for dinner."

"Pure coincidence, Varrick/Moon Industries was just the better choice for Firelord Izumi."

"Cheaper doesn't mean better. Future Industries had that contract sewn up, you hadn't even put in a bid."

"We were taking our time. Putting together a deal like this takes a lot of..."

As the two argued, Zhu Li walked over to Korra's side and examined the Pai Sho board. With a wink at Korra she bent down and moved one of the pieces.

"... and another thing, my ships have a twenty percent faster..."

"Come on Varrick," Zhu Li said as she straightened up from the Pai Sho board and took her husband and business partner by the hand. "We have two other meetings today and we can't be late."

"Oh right..."

"Good luck, Ms. Sato," Zhu Li said as she led Varrick out of the room.

Asami glared at Varrick until he left the room before turning back to Korra. "Next time we have those two over for dinner you are going to cook."

"What? You know I'm terrible at cooking."

"Exactly, it will be perfect. We'll poison him at dinner with your terrible cooking and Lin will be none the wiser."

"Hey, I'm bad but I'm not that bad."

Asami patted Korra affectionately on her arm. "Keep telling yourself that, but just remember I have tasted your sea prune stew."

"Naga liked it," Korra protested.

"Sweetie, Naga is a garbage can on legs. She would eat anything you put in front of her and then still raid the pantry later that night."

Korra had to concede that was true. Naga's rather voracious appetite had seen the polar bear dog banished to the gym at night instead of being allowed to sleep on the rug in their bedroom. "Are we going to finish this game?" she asked.

Asami glanced down at the Pai Sho board and her brow furrowed in confusion for a second. "Wow, Korra, that was actually a pretty good move. You might almost win this one."

Just then the door leading into the council chambers opened again and a council page walked through. "Ms. Sato, President Raiko will see you now."

"Or not," Korra said with a wry smile.

Asami laughed as she packed away the board and game pieces and picked up the folder containing her proposal for the construction contract. "You have been a big help though," Asami said.

"I have?"

Asami nodded. "Yes, the way you play, it's exactly how Varrick thinks. Random with flashes of brilliance. I think I know how to win this contract now."

"Does that mean you are going to buy me dinner after all?"

"Hmm," Asami mused as they headed through into the council chamber to meet the president and his cabinet. "We'll see."


End file.
